Graduate Job-Market or Postgraduate Work? Your Choice!  

'With the Ghana Graduate Job-market at saturation point, savvy students are increasingly looking to postgraduate study as the means of kick-starting their careers.' 

Competition for jobs is as fierce if not fiercer than ever before. It is therefore essential that prospective candidates know how to maximise their chances of career success. 

For many, postgraduate study can be a step into the unknown. With careers advisory services almost non-existent in the majority of tertiary institutions in the Country, Ghanaian students are required to take sole responsibility for their applications and deal directly with colleges and universities. Here are a few tips to help you if you decide upon this route.

First and foremost, applicants must make sure that they submit their postgraduate applications as early as possible. This is because once a sufficient number of offers have been made and accepted for a particular course, most universities will simply stop accepting new applications. 

Secondly, take time to assess your financial situation before applying. There are many different ways to fund your studies, including scholarships, studentships, bursaries, loans, sponsorship and self-funding. Many of these will only be available to those who apply by a certain deadline.

Thirdly, prospective postgraduate students are advised to take a considered approach by checking whether a university can accomodate their proposed postgraduate work. The first port of call should be the university website, where you should be able to find information on the particular department you are interested in and be able to view the fields in which research staff are active.

Applying for postgraduate study not only requires a high level of academic attainment, but preparation, organisation and personal endeavour are also required. Three essential qualities for long-term career success.

Are You Graduating This Year?

Contact Purplepeeple Support on 0302 951755 for more information on how to get your career on track.

Making a Difference - Private Religious Universities in Africa!

Critics of private post-secondary education argue that foreign universities in developing nations are commercial and profit-hungry. These debates ring hollow in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of private providers are religiously-oriented with non-profit business models'

Religious institutions are the fastest growing type of post-secondary institution in almost every nation north of South Africa and south of the Sahara.

These institutions range from research universities with multiple subjects to praxis-oriented training schools for religious leaders. While considered private because they are independent of state control and funding, the rationales of these institutions to provide post-secondary education are faith-based, rather than profit-driven.

Large state universities exist in most African nations and they have mainly followed the path of secularisation charted by their founding European colonial institutions. In contrast, several institutions established in the past two decades have been funded and managed by large international denominations such as the Ahlul Bayt Foundation or the United Methodist Church.

In the case of Ghana and Uganda, the government appealed to these organisations to establish universities to meet growing student demand. This was particularly important in the case of Ghana where the large Muslim population in the north often has little access to post-secondary education and the involvement of Ahlul Bayt was an attempt to increase access for marginalised students.

Both Christian and Muslim universities offer a range of subjects such as law, economics and education - but offer them through a faith-specific lens. Some have argued that these institutions engage in alternative knowledge production that challenges the West, but little evidence exists to support this as the scope of African academics is still relatively small on a global scale.

Purplepeeple awarded Business Award in Excellence!

'Koffi Einstein-Williams, the founder and CEO of Purplepeeple.com Africa's leading Career Development and Networking site for graduates was awarded this year's prestigious Business Award in Excellence at the recent African Business Leadership Conference and Awards Ceremony at the Park Plaza Hotel in London!'

Koffi Einstein-Williams was given the award by the African Leadership Magazine in recognition of Purplepeeple's quality contribution to African communities.  

Purplepeeple was established in 2009 with the tripartite mission of contributing to the personal development of African graduates, as well as towards the development of African Higher Education Institutions and African Businesses.

Purplepeeple provides both career development services to the students of tertiary education institutions in Africa as well as dedicated placement services to African businesses seeking high caliber graduates with the requisite employability skills that are critical in today's globalised environment. 

Purplepeeple's mission is to facilitate a more intimate engagement between Academia and the world of Business ensuring that curricula better reflects marketplace realities and that Business pays accordingly for the placement of Talent. The fees generated as a result of such placements are returned back to the tertiary institutions who were instrumental in the development of these successful graduates to finance their ongoing development.

Mr. Einstein-Williams states that apart from providing a brand new source of income for our tertiary institutions, the Purplepeeple model also helps in addressing the alarming problem of 'African Brain Drain' by ensuring that some form of financial recompense is made by international organisations who every year, actively recruit Africa's brightest and best. 

"Our vision is to contribute to the development of African Talent, African Businesses and modern African Universities which are unsurpassed in any part of the world; institutions which are adept in harnessing the ever-expanding frontiers of knowledge  and technology to deliver the highest quality of teaching and research, thereby effectively serving their students, their business communities their Countries and indeed Mother Africa.